Everyone thinks the Indians will be a tough out because of there top 2 starters. Remember they do have Paul Byrd in there rotation. All he does all night is pitch out of the stretch, runners on base all night!!! Indians also have very little playoff experience!!!

I would much rather face the Angels, the one thing that they do better than the Indians is run the bases. K-Rod is also probably tougher than Borowski but Anaheim is struggling to bridge the gap from their starters to K-Rod.

Cleveland has better starters, better middle relievers, more power bats, and they play better defense. Plus the Angels are kind of limping into the postseason while Cleveland has been hot.

hey Bosox: (re your last comment) My husband LIKED sports but wasn’t your average everday rabid male about them when I met him… Key word: wasn’t- until I came along. I’ve got him watching College Football, The RedSox, and listening to A.M. sports radio. He even watches Sports Center in the morning with me,He LOVES it now!! I grew up with 3 bros. and they got scared when I started talking sports. LOL. My dad loved it.
The Indians just seem to hungier than I’ve seen them in years!! I’ve always liked them (I’m a ****** for the perrenial underdog, OOPS! imagine that, being a RedSox fan all my life!!) for their grit and determination, NOT because Trot is there this year as a lot of people might think.

Don’t have listen to sports radio. To me that is where the crazy fans call in and think nothing but the negative. The hosts are usually trying to stir things up. I try to avoid sports radio. When Boston first got it ( Around 1990 or so ) I would always listen to it, now no way!!!

ellen. i don’t know what you mean/are talking about. BTW indians in 5. they haven’t seen CC all year and will likely see him 2X. and he is good. still think beck deserves the cy but CC is pretty strong.

too long for my taste. he is a good 5th starter for the overall season but this time of year like bosox said he’s all or nuthin and that’s not good. i’m fine though. i’ve had enough “kool-aid” the last 24 hrs to keep me happy!

Beckett had one quality start against the Yankees this season, Sabathia none, Escobar 1, Carmona 1/2…..Carmona has given up 6 runs in 12+ innings in two starts THIS year and Sabathia hasn’t faced the Yankees in three years. He also has a career 7+ ERA against them and is 1-7. He has gotten a lot better, he is a big lefty and the Yankees haven’t seen him for awhile (Wang hasn’t faced Cleveland this year, last year 3.55 ERA against them), I would imagine IF Sabathia pitches twice, he would split. He may shut them down once but I doubt twice in a five game series, especially having pitched one playoff game in his career and Carmona none. If the Yankees head back to the Bronx with Clemens against Westbrook with a 1-1 series, I think you can shut the door on Cleveland. I wouldn’t take Sabathia twice and let’s not forget he’s going up against a back to back 19 game winner and that second game would be at the stadium (game 4) where Wang is nearly unbeatable and a much better pitcher.

I think the four best teams in the AL are in the playoffs and they are pretty evenly matched. A case could be made for Detroit, but all the teams playing deserved to be there.

I’m not sure any team has a distinctive advantage with the first two starting pitchers. They are all pretty good and are capable of shutting down anyone. Divisional series stink because they are so short. So it all comes down to who plays baseball for a short time.

I really think the Sox have the advantage over all other teams though because they have that new “run in place” celebration dance. I mean, is Papelbon the next Fred Astaire or what?

OK, so that might not make a difference, but I do think the Sox head into the playoffs in great shape. Ortiz is hitting well, JD is really coming around ….. oops speaking of that, how about a three run homer ….. the pitching staff is well rested, Youk has had some needed time off, and they will have the Ellsbury factor doing the Dave Roberts thing. I like their chances.

Hey Arnie, How are things in the beautiful state of Colorado???? Nice to see you’re still here!!!
GO SOX, and hey Arnie, you of all people know that I have never been a DREW fan but, you gotta give him his due, WHICH YOU HAVE!!!

I still consider the Drew signing to be a bad one. I don’t think he’s worth what the Sox are paying him. However, he’s a better player than what he’s been most of the year, and for most players, that tends to even out as the year progresses. It’s a good time for thing to even up for him.

Hey you guys.. Last year the Brownie points blog used to get ripped by the Feinsand “mark it up” (Yankee) blog about not being as active as it could have been.. What a difference this year.!!! I’M GLAD TO SEE SO MANY DIFFERENT people here. I’m a believer that we’ve got the BEST BLOGMASTER AROUND!!!! THANK YOU IAN!!!!

Thank you JD for applying the game winner!! (see I told you I’d give respect) You also gave Wake his 17th win!!!! FOR THAT I REALLY THANK YOU!!!
THE “old guy” might not be the best, but he sure comes in handy. And he is the best at making grown men look absolutely silly at the plate!!

I LOVE MY/OUR SOX…..

I love our blog, … AND I SURE LOVE THE REDSOX NATIONERS, ESPECIALLY OUR ALUMNI/US FROM LAST YEAR

Great too see Dice K and Wakefield pitch well the last 2 games. Dice K pitched alot better but Wakefield held his own.

J.D. Drew is hot at the right time. I am impressed with that. Such a long season for him and stayed within himself. I didn’t think he could do it. My confidence in him was ZERO!!! I’m glad I am wrong!!!

Not sure about that one. I beleive the Red Sox feel comfortable going with a 4 men rotation and forcing the Angels to do the same thing. Usually Lackey does not pitch well at Fenway and by going with 4 men rotations both of his potential starts would come in Boston. Anyway I think (and hope) the Red Sox will take care of the Series before that.

Well, the Sox have won the division, gotten home field advantage. Some people on this blog were absolutely convinced the Sox would not get those. So happy that they proved the negative bloggers wrong.

The Sox are lining up pretty well for the playoffs. You’ve got Papi getting his power back(and in the late innings too). The emergence of JD, along with the continued great hitting of Mike L. Youk and Manny are healthy. If Tek gets a little rest he may surprise us, but even there you’ve got to admit he had a couple huge HR’s late in the games. One tied the game and the other got them to within one run. But he looks tired. Coco and Lugo will contribute, I can feel it. Pedrioa is a stud.

Pitchers: Beckett will be great , Dice is getting it back together, Wake has looked like he may be dialed in a little better. He will be pitching in the post-season, no doubt. Schill, we all know what he can do. The BP is solid. Oki still worries me a little and of course there is Gagne waiting to make the other teams’ comeback for them. But overall the BP looks good.

Ellsbury is pretty much the whole bench. Hinske sometimes gets a big hit but the pinch-hitting is a weakness.

bosox. you must be on a sugar high. didn’t think you could even spell WRONG. BTW i think the sox will win the div and get home field. as bad as it seemed other than HR’s ol JD isn’t that far off his career no’s. good for him. hope he keep’s a hot bat. for 3 more weeks at least. i’ll say it once more. 6-9 is the key to this team in the postseason. with manny 1-5 is as good as it gets. and the pitching is equal to everybody else if not better.

gsm. are any of them really WORTH what they get paid at this point? JD simply got what the market allowed. that one goes on theo/billy beane jr. ellen, thats my blonde comment. even though it’s not applicable.

Bosox, point out where I’m wrong and I’ll gladly retract my statement. For me by the sound of it, people act like nobody has ever hit Sabathia before or beaten him. And yeah, they also happened to score 950+ runs despite taking about a month off from offense.

Hey Ellen! How is everthing going? Not so antsy, just waiting for Wednesday and Thursday to start….And of course, everyone decides to give tests and papers at the same exact time- that doesn’t help.

What a very exciting game today. Fans who are there today should get some of there money back.

Vince,

I didn’t say you wrote anything wrong. It is just how you write it.

I think the Yankees will take out the Tribe in 4 games. Split in Cleveland and then take 2 in N.Y. I don’t see where Westbrook or Byrd could go into Yankee Stadium and beat the Yankees. One of those games the Yankees might put 10 on the board.

Hey, Tek with another late-in-the-game HR to bring the Sox to within one run. He’s still clutch.

If the Padres lose and the Rockies win, the Rox could be in the playoffs. That could set up a possible World Series about 20 miles from my house. Not bloody likely, but possible. See you in Denver Sox fans!

I agree about the Sox/Yanks ALCS. Most likely that will happen. It will be another classic! And as Jeff likes to say: it will be good for baseball.

Well, the Mets are going to be playing golf. The Marlins really dumped their hopes right in the toidy!!! There is a mutual fan dislike between the Mets and Marlins as it is, Wowo, just think how the Met Fans feel about them now!!!

my met fan friend who goes to my church was tlakign smack about the red sox 2 months ago about how the Yankees were gonna catch us,and that my youth pastor had said how the Red Sox wont make the play offs and the mets were gonna win the world series….time to rub things in….

indians in 5. anybody who wants the sox vs. yankees is a glutten for punishmnent IMO. boston is a better team BUT they just struggle against them. that’s the way it is in sports. some opp’s just get in your head. i think that’s the case.

I think that Lester earned himself a spot on the Postseason roster with the 2.0 IP, 2 K performance, Tavarez gains no votes from me. How would he be effective from the ‘pen. When he starts he seems to give up runs stairght out of the gate. If he comes into a game and gives up runs with that frequency, it would be a disaster. I think that what he needs is a extended warm-up time. However he gets a lot of tt abefore he starts, and out of the bullpen he wouldn’t get much at all. Also, without Lester we would only have 1 other lefty in the ‘pen in Okajima, so Lester would bring the lefty aspect and a spot start ability, + +, in my mind.

You gotta figure either the Phillies or the Rockies are going to be representing the NL in the World Series just based upon their unique journeys to even get to the playoffs. Plus the D’backs aren’t anything special at the plate and the Cubbies are choke artists and love to torment their fans.

I’m just looking at this from logical, not fanatic perspective. The Yankees have a better offensive lineup than the redsox. Why is that important you say? Well, postseason games are dictated by offense. The Yankees have the most runs scored in all of MLB. NUFF SAID. Pitching is wonderful to win games in the regular season when the pressure isn’t on but once those pitchers feel the stadium crowd they’ll throw like little leaguers. This is especially true of your younger and inexperienced players. Again, my prediction is that Josh Beckett will lose that first game in the Angels series and all of you will be blaming Francoma, JD Drew and your poor offense like you always do. RS Nation get ready cause you’re getting NUKED!

I know we’re all aware of how our first two starters have earned the label of “big game pitchers” but I thought I would put everybody’s mind at ease by sharing their postseason stats:

Schilling-

15 G, 8-2, 2.06 ERA, 109.1 IP, 79 H, 22 BB, 104 K

Beckett-

6 G, 2-2, 2.11 ERA, 42.2 IP, 21 H, 12 BB, 47 K

Those numbers all look good, but Schilling’s stats are just incredible. An ERA just above 2 in almost 110 innings? I don’t think I ever completely grasped just how dominant he has been in postseason play.

And Beckett has proven he is an ace this year but even 4 years ago he had ice water in his veins at Yankee Stadium as a 23 year old.

zach, those are the numbers that will probably put Schilling in the Hall of Fame. If he has a good post season this year, he’s probably a lock.

I’m not one for predictions because history really doesn’t seem to have much to do with what happens in a short post season series. Just have to look at last year’s Cardinals to see that.

However, I do think the Sox are the best prepared at this point. Even though we were all worried with how they were playing, they have essentially been on cruise control for a couple of months. Much to our chagrin at times, they have been able to get key players rested and healthy including Okajima, Manny and Youk. They have been able to give Ellsbury a lot of playing time and he’ll be a real asset before it’s all said and done. They’ve been able to get Gagne through some rough times and he could be huge. Add all that to the fact that JD seems to be heating up and Papi is finding his stroke and I think the Sox are as well prepared as they can be.

Hindsight is always 20/20 and in this case, you have to credit Francona for getting the Sox ready even though, I along with many others chastised him for a lot of decisions over the season. The only thing left for him to decide is which 25 players he’s going to take.

Here’s one tough decision. The Sox absolutely do not need four starters for this series. Wakefield is the ultimate team guy. Does he go to Tito to tell him to take someone who might be of more value in this situation, like Corey or even Lester who looked good in relief the other night? I think there’s no way Wake gets left off the post season roster, but it wouldn’t surprise me for him to do something like that.

take away the yankees ( obv best off and worst staff ) and stat’s wise there’s just not much to distinguish among the other 3. the sox are a lil better in everything but not drastically better. if manny is his old self and they get production from JD and the other 6-9 hitters the sox should prevail IMO. good news is beck can go on normal rest for a game 4. game 2 will be interesting. i’d go with dice personally. since it’s his first exp in the playoffs. here anyway. schill’s better suited and stronger mentally to pitch on the road i think. of course that would mean dice would also likely pitch a game 5 if nece..they won’t but personally from a strategic standpoint leaving wake off would be a good move IMO. i might be wrong but i just don’t see how he does anything but mop up duty if that were to become necessary. he’s just too risky. if at any point they do need a 4th starter you gotta go with lester.

The post season often surprises even the most educated “so-called” analysis, and then it always seems to come down to the little things, and the little improvements or failures.

So while most reasoning is focusing on pitching, my meaningless crystal ball says it will come down to hitting, because SOX pitching will be good (as it has been all year), but not lights-out (as it has rarely been all year).

So the SOX hitting will have to be a bit better in the post season than is has been all year in the regular season, especially with RISP and in clutch situations, in order to advance in the post season, and in particular with Lugo, Coco, Manny.

Here is may reasoning:

First the pitching — our pitching will be pretty much as expected — but neither Beckett or Schilling have been consistently lights-out all year, but very good, and Becket pitches better on the road than at home (and probably most of his games will be at home), so our pitching may yield 2-4 runs per game as has been common all year, even for Beckett.

So, it comes down to our offense not getting shut down — which it has been prone to at times this year, more due to lack of hits with RISP or in clutch situations, than no hits at all.

So even though it is pointless to single out players, because all are doing their very best and you never know who is going to get hot in the playoffs — I put a opportunity forth for Lugo, Coco, and Manny to somehow raise their level of offense a notch for the playoffs.

I know many folks on this blog have picked on Drew and Tek offensively, but if Tek doesn’t get a single hit in the playoffs he is still worth it to me — did you see all the pitchers kissing Tek in the Friday night celebration — I don’t think we can possibly understand his contribution to the team — so in my book, he probably will come through in the clutch anyway, but even so, I put the offense on the other eight hitters.

I have been one of those who always felt Drew would come thru in the clutch — but again I don’t think anyone should buy my crystal ball — lol. But given its the only crystal ball I have — that is why I see Lugo, Coco, and Manny being the diffence, in that order.

Lugo — because he has barely atoned for his season, and has had few clutch hits. If he doesn’t come thru better in early clutch and rally situations, and also stay away from mental and fielding errors, it will put our chances of advancing at risk. Coca heating up, and showing promise, defense amazing, but also needs to keep rallies alive. Manny (yes Manny) coming off un-timely down time — I worry about him because we will place him in clutch position (probably return him to batting clean-up?) — I think he was just hitting his stride, when he went down, and before that seemed like he was always hitting into DPs, ending rallies, more hits were solo hits and rally starting hits, rather than clutch hits or RISP hits — if his timing is off and we place him in his usual spot — could be a trouble that pitching will have to overcome.

As I think this through, I guess I am glad I am not Francona or Theo after all.

Just stating my observations so they won’t come true and I can eat my words with another WS title.

Meta

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